Cold War Headlines - 28 FEB to 6MAR - Special Report - Entertainment

5MAR46 Churchill's so called "Iron Curtain" Speech, which is actually titled "The Sinews of Peace" at Westminster College, Fulton, MO at the invitation of President Truman takes place. The speech is mainly about the newly formed United Nations Organization and pursuing peace in the world in the aftermath of WW2. The Soviet Union and communism is the antagonist that threatens this world peace goal after such a devastating war. We all know how this worked out. The text of the speech is at the Winston Churchill biography website. I have read multiple books on Churchill, including the 3-volume biography (about 1,000 pages per volume), and this is one very impressive man. For those that would rather watch the speech there is a video on YouTube here.

Churchill had President Truman and the others laughing in a lighter moment before the official speech begins

5MAR53 Stalin Dies - after 30 years in power, Joseph Stalin dies in a very similar manor to the man he supported in revolution, Lenin. The circumstances surrounding Stalin's death are eerily like the final days of Lenin, which Stalin, as some historians conjecture, orchestrated. Which of the four comrades that were there at Stalin's Dacha did a little more than being movie and dinner companions? Was it Malenkov, Beria, Khruschev, or Bulganin? or, all four of them!? Malenkov becomes Chairman the next day but relinquishes it to Bulganin 2 years later, who is then replaced by Khrushchev three years after that. A revolving door of communist dictators continues until the fall of the USSR in 1991. The Smithsonian magazine has a interesting take on the story here.

2MAR65 First "Rolling Thunder" Raid in Vietnam. Three years later and an estimated hundreds of thousands of pounds of ordnance dropped on Vietnam during Operation Rolling Thunder had limited effect in some historians viewpoint. Others disagree. Read more about it here.

3MAR71 US Special Forces leave Vietnam. The U.S. 5th Special Forces Group departs Vietnam after almost 7 years in-country training and fighting alongside the South Vietnamese military. A large part of their effort was to organize the Montagnard (CIDG) forces. Read more here.

6MAR83 Kohl Elected West German Chancellor - 3-time elected Chancellor of Germany, two times as West Germany, and once as the Unified Germany in 1990. This story will be of interest to you veterans who served in Europe, especially those of you who were stationed in West Germany during the Cold War. Read more here.

6MAR90 - SR-71 #972 Transcontinental Flight Speed Records - Retiring in Style! Here is one for the Air Force and CIA oriented readers. In blazing speed style, SR-71 #972 is retired to the Smithsonian Museum by a record setting flight from Los Angeles to Dulles airport. I found a cool website with loads of information on the event. An SR-71 documentary with video of takeoff, flights, interviews with pilots, and information on missions is here.

Special Report -

28FEB94 First NATO Military Action. Formed in April 1949 as a political and military alliance for mutual protection in the Cold War. The original 12 founding member countries has been expanded over the years to 29 countries. In 1955 The Warsaw Pact was signed by the USSR and seven member states in the Soviet sphere of influence to counter NATO. NATO and the Warsaw Pact forces never directly fought. On 28FEB94, NATO forces had their first military action by shooting down Serbian warplanes in the No Fly Zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina. The NATO website article on this event and follow on actions during the war and enforcement of the Dayton Peace Agreement is here.

Entertainment -
28FEB83 M*A*S*H Final Episode After 11 years on television, the final episode pulls in 105.9 million viewers, making it the all time winner! Link over and watch the 2 hour series finale on YouTube.

Billboard Top 100 for this week in 1966
SSGT Barry Sadler - Ballad of the Green Berets
On the "B" side of the 45 record was this song - Letter from Vietnam

Sports -
2MAR62 Wilt Chamberlin 100 Point Game He was the first to score 100 points in a single game beating his own 78 points record from earlier in the season. YouTube has more including audio of the game here and the NBA has a synopsis of the game here.

If you were part of any of these operations, or events similar to these, please share your Cold War story with the readers. Email me at proudcoldwarrior@gmail.com and we can develop a post and add it to a future week.

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Citations -
history.com website
winstonchurchill.org website
youtube.com for links to videos and songs
smithsonianmag.com website
sr71.us website
nato.int website
nba.com website
spreadshirt.com website
The Proud Cold Warrior Society store